Albert Latter; Physicist, Nuclear Weapons Expert
Albert L. Latter, nuclear physicist and expert on the design, effects and vulnerability of nuclear weapons systems, has died. He was 76.
Latter, who worked for the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. think tank for 20 years, died June 8 at his Pacific Palisades home, Rand announced this week.
With fellow physicist Edward Teller, Latter wrote the controversial 1950s book “Our Nuclear Future.” A Times review by Robert R. Kirsch in 1958 called the book significant because it set out the entire nuclear power and testing controversy for ordinary readers.
The co-authors predicted that prohibition of nuclear testing would not work, that an all-out nuclear war between the major powers was possible, and that smashing atoms could be an unlimited source of power.
“Perhaps the only possible path for a free people is to be well prepared for war but never to choose war as long as the choice is free,” Latter and Heller stated. “But what will happen God alone knows.”
Latter joined Rand in 1951 and was named chief of its physics department in 1960.
He left in 1971 to found R & D Associates, a defense research firm based in Marina del Rey and now a part of Northrop Grumman Corp. He served as president and chief executive officer until he retired in 1985.
An American delegate to the 1959 nuclear test ban negotiations in Geneva, Latter studied seismic detection, which helped lead to the U.S. approval of the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
He was the first American scientist to theorize that high-yield nuclear devices will emit a large fraction of their energy as high temperature X-rays, a discovery that demonstrated the vulnerability of offensive and defensive strategic missiles.
A doctoral graduate of UCLA, Latter served on the Defense Science Board and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Earlier this year, he received the lifetime achievement award of the Defense Special Weapons Agency.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters, Christina Kelton and Jacqueline Latter; a brother, Richard; and three grandchildren.
A Mass is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 8 at St. Monica’s Church in Santa Monica.
